According to the station, Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s government is reviewing payments worth billions of Hungarian forints made by Viktor Orbán’s cabinet to the pro‑government think tank Center for Fundamental Rights, which includes the Polish‑Hungarian Institute for Freedom, where Romanowski worked.
Over nine years, the Center — known for supporting the policies of Orbán’s Fidesz party — received more than EUR 9 million in direct government funding. A large share of the money was allocated through confidential government decisions, RTL noted, citing findings from Transparency International Hungary.
The Center has not disclosed how the state funds were used.
Miklós Ligeti, legal director of Transparency International, said more than EUR 438 million in total was distributed under 42 secret decisions issued by the Orbán government. One of the beneficiaries was the Center for Fundamental Rights. “This is a striking example of creating an organization that appears civic but in practice advances the goals of a political party,” Ligeti said.
In April 2025, while Orbán still led the government, Romanowski — who had been granted international protection in Hungary — became head of the Polish‑Hungarian Freedom Institute, operating within the Center for Fundamental Rights (Alapjogokért Központ).
Romanowski faces charges in an investigation by Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office into irregularities at the Justice Fund. In August, it emerged that he had applied for safe conduct at the Warsaw District Court. The envelope and letter indicated the shipment came from Tiraspol in Transnistria, a separatist region of Moldova that is de facto under Russian control.
Romanowski left Hungary after Magyar’s Tisza party won the April parliamentary elections.
(pu)
Source: PAP